Happy Arbor Day

My dad with an 150-year-old European beech at Lawnfield, the home of President Garfield in Mentor, Ohio.

Honoring The Giving Trees

By Debra Knapke

In her March 27th post, Teresa offered a
wonderful selection of books for children.
One was The Giving Tree. Shel
Silverstein’s story is simple: a tree gives her all to the one she loves.

We annually celebrate trees on Arbor Day; the last Friday in April. The Arbor Day Foundation is the caretaker of this event, and it has announced a bold and wonderful initiative called Time for Trees. In four years’ time the Arbor Day Foundation intends to “Plant 100 million trees in forests and communities around the globe. Inspire 5 million tree planters to help carry the mission forward.” This timing coincides with the 150th anniversary of the first Arbor Day.

Flower of a tulip tree

Bald cypress and its knees in a swamp at Callaway Gardens in Georgia

But we don’t always value our trees and sometimes,
incautious decisions are made.

In a community where generations have loved and worked with
nature there are those who do not fully understand the consequences of removing
trees. Several weeks ago in Mansfield, Ohio, the Richland County Commissioners stated
that the ten tuliptrees and one pin oak that have graced the front of the
Richland County Administration building for decades were hazards, allowed birds
to roost, and were in the way of a the installation of a new monument.

They were removed. There are plans to replace the trees. It will take years for the new trees to mature, but it is heartening to know that trees will come back to frame the municipal building.

Mansfield Municipal Building with the tulip trees and pin oak

In honor of trees, I offer this short ode:

The Giving Tree – a short list of the reasons we owe
trees our love and respect

Trees shelter us; they are nature’s sunscreen.

Trees cool us: three trees correctly placed around a house
can lower utility bills up to 20%.

Trees draw pollution out of the air: carbon monoxide,
nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter released by the
burning of fossil fuels.

Tree roots, and the soil systems that surround them, purify water.

Trees provide storm water control by slowing water and diverting
wind; thereby slowing erosion.

Trees store carbon; lots of carbon.

Trees – and all plants – perform photosynthesis where they
combine, water, sunlight and carbon and make sugar. Without this amazing
process, life would not exist as we know it.

Trees offer food to all life: while they are living, bark,
branches, roots, leaves, fruit, and seeds feed bacteria, fungi, insects, birds,
mammals… us. When trees fall and go back to the Earth, they nurse new
communities of life.

When trees are numerous in a community, mental health is
increased and crime is reduced.

The older the tree, the bigger its diameter and canopy, the
more a tree gives to us and others. Young ones – just as with animals – reach
maturity slowly and offer these benefits at a much lower degree.